Modern equipment such as copiers and printers provide the user with a large number of options. Commonly used options include choices between duplex and simplex (both input and output), several paper supplies or sizes, image reductions, image magnifications, and various post treatments such as collation, stapling, or the like. Many prior art control panels have buttons permanently dedicated to these commonly used "primary functions."
The same equipment may also have a large number of less often used "special" features, such as image shift, the addition of covers, chapterization, slip sheeting, book copying, job stream programming, the copying of tabs, etc.
A control panel with dedicated buttons for all these special features would be impracticably large. To aid the user in using these special features, prior art control panels have been designed using known display technology, for example, passive liquid crystal technology or vacuum fluorescent display technology, to lead the operator, using numerical paging and menus, step by step through the process for setting the machine up for a particular special feature. While such control panels with their dedicated buttons and a separate display means, greatly assist both the less sophisticated and sophisticated operator, the panels themselves are becoming large and costly.